In this author's opinion, this is the final harvest of the fruit planted with the passage of the PATRIOT Act in 2001 and its various subsequent extensions. Under NDAA, civilian terror suspects (whatever that means in the broad definition) in the U.S. could be held in jail (in a military jail no less) indefinitely without charge or trial. In other words, the military will have carte blanche to take custody of alleged terrorists without virtually any questions. To no one's surprise the ACLU finds that this would be a stark violation of human rights as spelled out under the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights ("ACLU.org").
Media coverage of the whole act has been light. A Google News search conducted by this author on 16 December, 2011 showed the major coverage not by the major media outlets, but rather by blogs and alternative news services. Evidently, it does not rate well for prime time CNN coverage. The lobbying was tortuous, and included U.S. military contractors, the President himself and civil rights and citizens groups. When President Obama indicated that he might veto the bill Senator Carl Levin, who sits on the Armed Services Committee as its chairman said on the floor of the Senate to an inquiry for Senator Mark of Illinois that the Obama administration dictated the wording of the act and embargoed the text that would have saved U.S. citizens from the indefinite imprisonment and the suspension of habeas corpus. The original wording of NDAA 1031 would have excluded American citizens from the provision that allowed for indefinite detention of U.S. citizens, even withing the boundaries of the U.S. Once Obama's cabinet officials saw the text Levin remarked that, "the administration asked us to remove the language which says that U.S. citizens and lawful residents would not be subject to this section ("Senate Hearings for NDAA 1031")."
As mentioned before, the Senate Armed Services and House Armed Services committee hearings were secret, so information about other lobbyists other than the White House has to come from indirect sources. It is difficult to know what defense contractors were lobbying for in the bill. As noted already as well, civil rights groups like the ACLU have working nonstop to defeat...
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